SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not Leen reserved for review in other forms.]
Memoirs of the Viceroy, Li Hung Chang. With an Intro- duction by Hon. John W. Foster. (Constable and Co. 10s. 6d. net.)—No political or diplomatic revelations of great importance will be found in these selections from Li Hung Chang's diary, and only the mildest indiscretions appear in its pages. Indeed, its main interest lies in the light it throws upon the character of its author. Li Hung Chang depicts himself—with what truth we cannot pretend to judge—as a simple-minded, straightforward man, sound in judgment, stern in discipline, kindly in private affairs. In his relations with that most difficult of sovereigns, the Dowager Empress, Ire showed all these qualities. He did not hesitate to risk incurring her displeasure by warning her in the most open way against assisting the Boxers, and was even moved to protest against her cruel treatment of the Emperor after the coup d'etat of 1898, though he himself was far from sym- pathizing with the reform movement, which then reached its premature end. His attitude towards her was often almost one of cynical contempt. "I believe," he remarks, "with the Hight of time her ambition grows, and she hopes to live on for ever." And, describing the end of an interview with her, lie says :-
" She had been so cordial and amiable in comparison to her ordinary wont that I did not believe my further query would offend her, but in an instant she was alive with wrath and angry words, and I immediately withdrew. I have seen women some- thing like her before, but they were in my house, and it was not necessary for me to get on my knees to them."
But in spite of these outbursts he seems always to have pre- ser•ved an affection for the Old Buddha. Much of the volume is taken up with the period of his voyage round the world, when he attended the Tsar's Coronation. The naivete we have mentioned is well illustrated in the following passage, written in the train on his departure from Russia :—
"I do not think I would like to exchange positions with the Tsar, even to have the fine Tsaritza as wife and my choice of the rarest tea! Especially in these later years I have had no fear of my life being taken, unless it would be by some crazy fanatic like the fellow who shot ns in the eye at Shimonoseki. Several times in Hankow, in the days of my first viceroyalty, low fellows sought to take my life, and once in Tientsin a low fellow came into my courtyard and told the banner captain in charge that he intended taking my life. He had a long piece of wire, and said he was going to hang me to my own gate-posts. I had to have his head cut off before he would stop talking."
What struck him most during his stay in England was a visit to Hawarden, and he exclaims more than once, " If I could be any other person than Li Hung Chang I would want to be William Ewart Gladstone." His interests in England were, indeed, strictly limited, and he gives the following list of them : " The Queen, her Majesty Victoria, of England and Ireland and India, her son, who will be King if he lives, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Morley, Lord Tennyson, and the Houses of Parliament, those were what interested me in England, and the ships."
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